Virtually all politicians are liars, as are some journalists and economists — but the scummiest low-life liars of all are the people who tell you Social Security and Medicare are running short of money and the “solution” is to cut benefits and/or increase taxes.

These people should be skinned alive, boiled and salted, after which painful things should be done to them.

They are paid by, and do the bidding of, the rich and powerful, to hurt the weak and powerless.

“Rich” is a comparative term. The Gap between the rich and the rest, is what makes the rich rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the Gap, the richer they are.

So, it is a prime goal of the rich to widen the Gap by impoverishing the rest of us. And virtually all politicians, some writers, and some economists are only too happy to oblige the rich.

The Social Security program is designed to replace about 40% of a workers’ income.

In reality, though, nearly half of all unmarried elderly beneficiaries get 90% of more of their income from Social Security. The thought of tinkering with benefits is equally worrisome for baby boomers nearing or just entering retirement. Many were clobbered by the Great Recession, and a good chunk could be entering retirement with an inadequate amount of savings.

The Social Security program, however, isn’t in great shape. The Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance Trust, or collectively the OASDI, is slated to burn through its remaining cash reserves by 2033.

If Congress can’t come to a long-term solution that involves raising additional revenue and/or cutting expenses, benefits for eligible beneficiaries will be cut by 23%.

If Social Security were a privately run program or a local government-run program, the above paragraph could be true. The program could “burn through cash reserves,” and the solution would be to”raise additional revenue or cut expenses and benefits.

But Social Security is a federally-run program, and unlike you and me and local governments, the federal government never can run short of dollars.

The author of the article, Sean Williams, is telling a great, big, fat lie, when he says, “If Congress can’t come to a long-term solution that involves raising additional revenue and/or cutting expenses, benefits for eligible beneficiaries will be cut by 23%.

Not that Congress won’t continue cutting benefits, as it already has been. But the point is, Congress doesn’t need to cut benefits.

In fact, even if FICA, the tax that supposedly funds Social Security, were cut to $0, Social Security could continue paying benefits forever — even increase benefits forever.

According to Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, we need to make some pretty radical reforms to the entitlement program.

Christie’s recommendation to fix Social Security, like many before it, focuses on the coming generations to receive Social Security benefits and not on current retirees.

Thus, if you’re already receiving benefits, you can breathe a bit easier.

Yes, you can breathe easier, if you don’t give a damn about your children and grandchildren. Just sit back, and watch the politicians cut their benefits and increase their taxes.

Christie would like to see the full retirement age moved from age 67 to 69. He also wants to enact a raise to the minimum age at which retirees can claim benefits from age 62 to age 64.

It’s called the “work-until-you-drop (if you even can find a job at that age)” plan.

Christie’s proposal may coerce pre-retirees and Generation X to work longer, which makes sense given that we’re living longer than ever.

Sure it makes sense to the Party of the Rich. You are not rich, therefore you are a lazy good-for-nothing, who needs to be coerced to work and work and work. Heaven forbid you might enjoy a longer retirement.

In the eyes of the rich, only rich people are not lazy, so they deserve the enjoyment of a longer retirement. Not you.

Instead, you middle-class people, having been granted longer lives, are told you should be delighted to search for jobs and to labor those extra years. Strangely, most not-rich people believe it.

But Christie’s proposal also has adverse effects. It turns out that raising the retirement age could be very bad news for the nation’s poorest citizens who rely on Social Security income in their golden years.

But really, who cares about them, so long as the rich (courtesy of the right wing Supreme Court) legally are able to bribe politicians like Christie, to lie about Social Security?

As The Washington Post reports, lifetime Social Security benefits can often reflect a person’s socioeconomic status. The poorest Americans often lack access to adequate nutrition and healthcare, while the richest Americans have ample access to medical care and can make healthier food choices.

So, cutting Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits, while raising taxes, are exactly what the wealthiest nation on earth should be doing to your children and grandchildren. Right?

According to The Washington Post, which conducted an informal study last year that allowed online respondents to select which of 12 methods they’d support to fix Social Security (respondents could select all that appealed to them), boosting the earnings cap on the payroll tax proved to be by far the most popular fix.

Cut benefits across the board today (100%)
Raise the full retirement age (20%)
Freeze the purchasing power of benefits (95%)
Freeze benefits on a sliding scale (55%)
Change the cost-of-living adjustment (20%)
Do nothing (but cut benefits when the Trust Fund reserves are gone) (100%)
Increase the payroll tax on everyone today (100%)
Raise the earnings cap (30%)
Use the estate tax to tax health benefits (35%)
Transfer start-up costs to general revenues (100%)
Raise the return on assets by investing in the stock market (20%)
Do nothing (but raise taxes when the Trust Fund reserves are gone) (100%)

Could a survey be any phonier?

It provides 12 so-called “options,” all of which boil down to “cut benefits and/or increase taxes,” while leaving out the one true option: The federal government should pay for Social Security and Medicare. Period.

Here is what Sean Williams and all the politicians who want to cut benefits and increase taxes don’t tell you: FEDERAL TAXES DO NOT FUND FEDERAL SPENDING FICA doesn’t fund Social Security and Medicare.

President Roosevelt, who originated Social Security knew FICA was not necessary. He created FICA only to prevent politicians from eliminating the program, not to pay for the program.
fre are running out of money?

Why?

The answer: The rich don’t want the White House the Supreme Court and Congress to run out of money, but the rich do want Social Security to run out of money.

By pressing down on middle classes and the poor people’s income, the rich widen the Gap. They make themselves richer by comparison.

Whenever you hear any politician — Christie, Bush, Obama, Boehner et al — or read any article, saying that the Social Security “Trust Fund” is running short of dollars, know this: The speaker or writer is a stinking liar, who has been paid by the rich to take money from your children and grandchildren.

And pay no attention to phony claims that certain increases in FICA also will take money from the rich. The rich aren’t affected by a few dollars taken from salaries.

Many of the rich don’t even earn a salary (Have you ever wondered why FICA only is applied to salaries and not to capital gains?), A few dollars means nothing to the rich — though it can mean quite a lot to the poor and the middle.

Who is stealing your children’s Social Security and Medicare? The scummy, low-life politicians, journalists and economists — and you, if you believe their stinking lies.

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. troops deployed in battle zones is at its lowest level since before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Still, Congress has authorized a 38 percent increase in the war budget over last year.

The contradiction is the legacy of an emergency war fund, started in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, that has become a favorite Washington way to sidestep the impact of fiscal constraints on military spending.

The Overseas Contingency Operations account, or OCO, has been tapped to fund tens of billions of dollars in programs with questionable links, or none, to wars, according to current and former U.S. officials, analysts and budget documents.

This spring, Congressional Republicans abandoned any pretense that OCO should be used for its stated purpose – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and related operations. In a maneuver to increase defense spending, they simply approved adding $38 billion in other, non-war Pentagon spending to the account, bringing the total to $89 billion.

In doing so, lawmakers tapped OCO’s budget magic: as a contingency fund, it doesn’t count against budget caps on defense and non-defense spending imposed in 2011.

Experts say that a complete accounting of questionable OCO spending may be impossible.

O.K., what is the scandal?

You’re supposed to believe the scandal is the federal government’s use of devious techniques to spend more than it has budgeted. You’re supposed to believe the federal government is spending dollars it doesn’t have in a wasteful and shocking lack of fiscal discipline.

Yes, that is what you’re supposed to believe. But the real scandal is: The federal budget is essentially meaningless — worse than meaningless — it is deceptive, not just in its operation, but more importantly, the federal budget is deceptive in its implied purpose.

For you and me, and for cities, counties, states and businesses, all of which are monetarily NON-sovereign, the purpose of a budget is to find some balance between income and outgo.

If, for instance, you earn $50K per year, you probably can’t afford to buy a $5 million home. So you budget your spending, and perhaps rent an appropriately priced apartment.

The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, and able to create dollars at will, suffers from no such restrictions. It can afford anything.

Unlike your budget, the purpose of which is to restrict your spending, the federal budget merely is an accounting procedure, to indicate what spending is proposed.

The real scandal is how both political parties pretend that the federal government’s dollar supply is limited, and so, spending must be limited — especially any spending that benefits the poor and middle classes — while taxes must be increased, especially taxes that impact the poor and middle classes.

Thus, benefits from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, housing, etc. are under constant scrutiny and pressure, with repeated claims they are “unsustainable,” while FICA is increased, and there are calls to “broaden the tax base” or “institute a flat tax” (which tax the poor more).

There is one, and only one, limit to federal spending, and that limit is not “sustainability” or affordability or availability of funds. The U.S. federal government never, never, never can run short of dollars to pay its bills. Even if all federal taxes, of every type, fell to $0, the federal government could continue deficit spending, forever.

The one, the only, limit to federal deficit spending is excessive inflation. (We use the term “excessive,” because most economists agree that a certain, small amount of inflation is beneficial.)

At some point — a very distant point, a point we never have reached in our history — federal deficit spending theoretically could become so large, even an increase in interest rates might not be able to prevent excessive inflation.

At that never-reached point, we simply would have to cut deficit spending. Until then, the federal government can spend at will.

Yes, the real scandal is the pretense that federal spending is like personal spending, limited by income.

And, until the public understands the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary NON-sovereignty, our economy and the economies of the world, will limp along in fits and starts.

Growth will continue to be interspersed with unnecessary recessions and depressions. Sad situations like the euro and Greece will repeat. And the poor and middle classes will continue to be punished.

The poor and middle classes pay a terrible penalty for their ignorance, and that is the real scandal.

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

Recently, President Obama spoke in Ethiopia, saying, “Nobody should be president for life. Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas. I’m still a pretty young man, but I know that somebody with new energy and new insights will be good for my country. It will be good for yours, too, in some cases.”

What he didn’t say is that the lack of term limits practically guarantees criminality, sloth and nepotism, all of which increase with each passing year.

Consider my state, Illinois, the most corrupt state in the union. Of our last seven governors, four have gone to prison.

Illinois has the worst debt of any state, together with high taxes; our school systems are a mess; and Chicago’s racial segregation is extreme. Illinois is as poorly run as — perhaps more poorly run than — any state.

Chicago is one of those two largest cities nationwide without any term limits. Thus, we had Mayor Richard J Daley who held office for 21 years, and ruled king-like over a notoriously corrupt administration.

Later, came his even more corrupt son, Richard M. Daley, who held office for 22 years, before retiring in disgrace. (He sold valuable city property to pay for bribes to unions and others for re-election assistance.)

“It is a safe bet that the General Assembly will never pass a bill limiting its own members’ ability to seek re-election.” – Christopher Mooney, University of Illinois Springfield professor, term-limits expert

Overwhelmingly, Illinoisans support term limits. A recent poll showed 78.7 percent of Illinois voters support term limits.

Despite the overwhelming public support for term limits, only a few legislators have tried to use the legislative process to enact term limits. The legislature has failed to enact any meaningful term limit reforms.

Consider Illinois’s Michael Madigan:

He is the longest-serving Speaker in state history, having held the position for all but two years since 1983. He has been a member of the Illinois House since 1971.

Chicago Magazine named Madigan the fourth-most-powerful Chicagoan in 2012 and second in 2013 and 2014, calling him “the Real Governor of Illinois.”

Madigan refused to testify in the inquiry over his advocacy for more 40 applicants to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Michael Madigan had sought to use his influence to secure patronage hiring and promotion at the Metra commuter rail agency for two of his supporters.

More than 400 current or retired state and local government employees have strong political ties to Madigan. The former Bureau of Electricity in the Streets and Sanitation Department of the City of Chicago was called “Madigan Electric” by political insiders.

Madigan admitted that he is more likely to return phone calls from campaign contributors than from non-contributors. Of all the current sitting Democratic Illinois House members, Speaker Madigan has received the highest amount of campaign contributions from labor unions.

Madigan was founder and continues as senior partner of the law firm Madigan and Getzendanner specializing in corporate real estate property tax appeals, which has been accused of profiting off of Madigan’s position and power. Getzendanner and four other staff attorneys handle the tax appeals, while Madigan brings in clients.

In 2008 Madigan and Getzendanner represented 45 of the 150 most valuable buildings in downtown Chicago, more than any other property tax appeal firm, and more than twice as many as the second highest.

Then we have the Madigan family nepotism tree:

(His wife) Shirley is the head of the Illinois Arts Council. His oldest daughter, Lisa Madigan, is the Attorney General of Illinois. Madigan’s son-in-law Jordan Matyas is the chief lobbyist for Regional Transportation Authority, a deputy chief overseeing their Government Affairs Department.

In 2002, Madigan helped his daughter Lisa garner more campaign contributions in her run for Illinois Attorney General than even the candidates for governor that year. At one point, Lisa Madigan’s $1.2 million raised was more than all the attorney general candidates in 1998 had raised, combined.

The man has been clever enough to cover his back by installing his daughter as Attorney General, who not surprisingly, never has investigated her father.

How has Madigan achieved and maintained such control?

First, he brings home the bacon to his district. He is not elected by the state voters. He is elected by just one district, and that district receives the benefits of Madigan’s power. If you lived in that district, you would elect him. So would I.

At a time when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has frozen state spending and cut the budget, a $35 million state grant got paid in full last month that helps build a 1,500-student school in the district of House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Second, the lack of term limits has given Madigan plenty of time to build alliances and to create a system that increasingly provides him with corrupting power.

For a politician, length of term is in direct proportion to breadth of corruption.

The lack of term limits, which allows criminal fiefdoms time to develop, is the fundamental flaw in American politics. It has all but destroyed Illinois and Chicago and presumably many other states, counties and cities.

The primary argument against term limits has to do with experience. A politician gains experience through time, and limiting his time, limits his experience.

However, that does not seem to have been an impediment to the most demanding and important job in America: The Presidency of the United States. The reason: Each new President surrounds himself with experienced people. All politicians can do that.

Once installed, politicians are very difficult to dislodge. They do more favors and collect more money than any opposing candidate.

The whole notion of “Ruler For Life”, whether a governor, mayor, alderman, senator, representative, etc., is an open invitation to the corruption that comes with power.

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

The euro nations, having surrendered the single, most valuable asset any entity can have — their Monetary Sovereignty — now deal with the inevitable austerity that surrender requires.

The process always is the same:

1. A monetarily NON-sovereign government does not have the ability to create money. So, to pay its bills, it must have income. This income can come from three sources: A positive balance of trade, taxes and/or borrowing.

(As an aside, you personally are monetarily NON-sovereign. To pay your bills, you must have income. To survive long-term all monetarily NON-sovereign entities must have net income.)

2. Mathematically, not all nations can rely on a positive balance of trade. Those with a negative balance of trade must acquire money by increased taxing and/or borrowing.

And here is where the divide between euro nations vs. U.S. states, counties and cities occurs.

Euro nations borrow from the troika (the European Central Bank [ECB], the European Commission [EC], and the International Monetary Fund [IMF]), a rapacious group that follows typical loan-shark protocol:

Lend to borrowers who cannot pay, then repeatedly lend more to pay the previously unpayable debt, then impose draconian punishments for non-payment — a protocol the guarantees endless debt slavery. The troika must have learned from the Mafia.

By contrast, most U.S. cities, counties and states, though also monetarily NON-sovereign, are blessed by a positive balance of trade with the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government (which never can run short of dollars).

Billionaire hedge fund managers have called on Puerto Rico to lay off teachers and close schools so that the island can pay them back the billions it owes.

The hedge funds called for Puerto Rico to avoid financial default – and repay its debts – by collecting more taxes, selling $4bn worth of public buildings and drastically cutting public spending, particularly on education.

Perfect: The loan sharks (this time not the troika, but the equally rapacious hedge fund managers) demand that Puerto Rico further enslave and impoverish its people by squeezing them for more taxes and cutting education.

And of course, the wealthy hedge fund managers want further to rape the Puerto Rican economy by purchasing government property at bargain basement prices.

This is exactly what is happening to Greece. Loan sharks are the same, the world over.

The report, entitled For Puerto Rico, There is a Better Way, said Puerto Rico could save itself from default if it improves tax collection and drastically cuts back on public spending.

It accused the island, where 56% of children live in poverty, of spending too much on education even though the government has already closed down almost 100 schools so far this year.

Could it be any more disgusting than stealing the futures of already impoverished children?

The article goes on with ever more shocking suggestions from the loan sharks. You should read it to see how low it is possible for rich criminals to sink (the same rich criminals who complain loudly about the petty crimes committed by poor criminals).

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.